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News Analysis: March 24, 2008

posted on March 24, 2008 at 10:45 AM

Beck: We turn
to David Pitt for a look behind the headlines.
Dave, thanks for joining us.

Pitt: Hi,
Jeneane.

Beck: Tragedy
in Iowa City
today. Explain what happened.

Pitt: Well,
it's a tragic story that started early this morning. About 6:30 the police received a 911 call
from a cell phone and they went to a home on the east edge of Iowa City
and found a woman and four children had been killed. So, they have been working all day to try to
unravel the details of this story. It's
the home of a man who worked for the Hills Bank and he has been indicted by a
federal grand jury on charges of taking money from the bank. He's missing.
The family van has been found about nine miles easy of Iowa City on
the Interstate, crashed and burned.
There was a body in the van. They
haven't yet identified it as the man.
So, there are things that the police need to connect up but it is indeed
a tragic story.

Beck: And the
woman and children that were killed, do we know how they died?

Pitt: Police
originally put out a message about a shooting.
They alerted the University of Iowa
campus, they alerted local schools and shut them down saying that it was a
shooting. But then they came back later
in the day and said they were not certain of that. So, again, that's another detail. We're waiting for details. There will be autopsies tomorrow and so we'll
learn more.

Beck: But a
devastating tragedy in that community.

Pitt: Exactly.

Beck: Talk
about the Iowa
statehouse. The Senate has been debating
all day on legislation that is considered labor legislation, pro-union by
some. What is going to amount if that
legislation becomes law?

Pitt: Well, it
appears to be a bill that affects public employees, mainly teachers, city,
county, state employees and what it does is it allows them to specify the types
of things that they can bring up and can be brought up by the unions that
represent them in negotiations. So, it
broadens that a bit. Democrats believe
that it's keeping pace with the private sector.
Many republicans believe that it's something that is going to increase
taxes because it will open up more things for consideration and it could be
something that raises taxes. So, that is
the debate about what's happening. The
Governor came out today and said that he believes perhaps that maybe a public
hearing would be the best thing. But it
appears this thing is going to happen today and is being debated as we speak.

Beck: It's
been interesting because this had really come very quickly and the House
majority leader, Democrat Kevin McCarthy had said he actually did time this to
try to limit debate because he knew it was going to be partisan, he knew it was
going to be complicated. But then there
was a break over the weekend. They had
hoped to wrap that bill up last week but they did go home. And so some democrats say look, constituents
had time to get a hold of us. The
Governor has been largely silent on this and all of a sudden saying, ooh, let's
rain it in a little bit. It almost
seemed to me like he said let's stop while I can stick my finger in the wind
and see where the wind is blowing on this issue. But they went ahead without him and that is
the democratic majority saying to their democratic governor, no, we're going to
do what we want.

Pitt: Right, I
think Senator Gronstal who leads the democrats in the Senate did say today that
his plan is to go ahead and complete the debate on the bill today, that there
has been ample time for people to reach their legislators and there has been
time for debate. I think they allowed 6
hours of debate on the bill so it should be wrapped up some time today. So, I think that's where it's headed. It sounds like it's headed for completion in
the legislature and the Governor obviously will have his choice. He'll have to decide what to do with the
bill.

Beck: One of
the other things we're keeping an eye on this week is, of course, the
legislation dealing with smoking in public places. It's gone to a conference committee. They haven't met other than to sort of talk
about future meetings yet but we expect them to meet and sort of try to hammer
out negotiations or a deal this week.

Pitt: Right
and it looks like it is going to come to some sort of an agreement this
week. Again, this is the issue that
would ban smoking in a number of places but it also would exempt a few places and
the hang up has been on the exemptions.
And it appears that maybe they'll be headed for exempting casinos and
perhaps veteran's halls, veteran's clubs but that is still part of the
contention there. And we'll have to see
when it all completes the process where it ends up.

Beck: And
whatever comes out of that conference committee has to be voted on up or down,
right? They can't change it?

Pitt: That's
right.

Beck: Alright,
so we'll see what happens.

Pitt: That
should be wrapped up this week too and then we'll get to the budget.

Beck: Minor
detail, right?

Pitt: I think
it's the middle of April, April 22nd, that week is the 100 days and that's when
they stop getting paid so we've got a few more weeks and then the legislature
likely will be finished.